ML021760755
| ML021760755 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Browns Ferry, Watts Bar, Sequoyah  |
| Issue date: | 10/22/1998 |
| From: | Kent C E Tennessee Valley Authority |
| To: | NRC/OI |
| References | |
| -RFPFR, 2-1998-013, 50-259-CIVP, 50-260-CIVP, 50-296-CIVP, 50-327-CIVP, 50-328-CIVP, 50-390-CIVP, ASLBP 01-791-01-CIVP, EA-99-234, RAS 3933 | |
| Download: ML021760755 (38) | |
Text
1 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
x 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25: Case No. 2-1998-013
x Tennessee Valley Authority Lookout Place Building 1100 Market Street Chattanooga, Tennessee Thursday, October 22, 1998 The above-entitled matter came on for interview, pursuant to notice, at 1:44 p.m. BEFORE: DIANA S. BENSON, Investigator APPEARANCES:
On behalf of the Interviewee:
BRENT R. MARQUAND, Esquire Tennessee Valley Authority Office of General Counsel 400 W. Summit Hill Drive Knoxville, TN 37902-1499 ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD. Court Reporters 1025 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 1014 Washington, D.C. 20036 (202) 842-0034 2z 1998-U 1 3 PAGI EXHIBIT /L. E_LoF3 PAG In the Matter of: INTERVIEW OF: CHARLES E. KENT, JR. (CLOSED)"(s) 2 C 0 N/T E N T S EXAMINATION WITNESS CHARLES E. KENT, JR. BY MS. BENSON AND MR. MARQUAND 1 2 "-, 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 S- 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 IDENTIFIED ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD. Court Reporters 1025 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 1014 Washington, D.C. 20036 (202) 842-0034 NUMBER [NONE.]4 EXHIBITS 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 3 PROCEEDINGS
[1:44 p.m.] MS. BENSON: For the record, today's date is 22 October 1998. The time now is 1:44 p.m. I'm Special Agent Diana Benson of the NRC Office of Investigations, Atlanta, Georgia and I'll be conducting this interview.
I did not show you my credentials, so I'll do that now just to identify myself. MS. BENSON: And if you can acknowledge that I have identified myself. MR. KENT: Yes, you have, thank you. MS. BENSON: During this proceeding, which is being recorded for transcription, the NRC Office of Investigation will conduct an interview of Mr. Charles E. Kent, Jr. This interview pertains to 01 Investigation Number 2-1998-013.
The location of this interview is TVA Nuclear, 1101 Market Street, Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Others in attendance at this interview, in addition to the court reporter are Mr. Brent R. Marquand, M-a-r-q-u-a-n-d.
And Mr. Marquand is here representing TVA and Mr. Kent. If you would raise your right hand. Whereupon, CHARLES E. KENT, JR., ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD. Court Reporters 1025 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 1014 Washington, D.C. 20036 (202) 842-0034 4 1 the Interviewee, was called for examination and, having been 2 first duly sworn, was examined and testified as follows: 3 DIRECT EXAMINATION 4 BY MS. BENSON: 5 Q And if you can, if you would state your full name 6 and your middle name. 7 A My name is Charles Edward Kent, Jr. 8 Q And your date of birth? 9 A 10 Q And your social security number? 11 A 12 Q Mr. Kent, prior to the beginning of this 13 interview, I asked you to read over Section 1001 of Title 18 14 of the United States Code. Did you read over that and do 15 you understand it? 16 A Yes, I did read over it and I do understand it. 17 Q Okay, thank you very much. And I also indicated 18 to you that you're not a target of the investigation, but 19 instead are being interviewed as a witness in the case of 20 Mr. Gary Fiser in his 1996 DOL discrimination complaint 21 against TVA concerning the posting of his corporate 22 chemistry position here in Chattanooga, Tennessee and his 23 subsequent non-selection for that position.
24 Can you just basically give me a history of your 25 employment here with TVA? ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD. Court Reporters 1025 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 1014 Washington, D.C. 20036 (202) 842-0034 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 1993?ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD. Court Reporters 1025 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 1014 Washington, D.C. 20036 (202) 842-0034 5 A Well, I joined TVA in 1979, November of '79. I've been -- served in various positions within the company since then. Starting in about 1981, I guess, I was a manager and have served in various management positions since that time. I have served in the corporate office for a period of about '79 to '85 and then I worked at Watts Bar Nuclear Plant from -- let's see, then I moved to Chattanooga in '85 in the corporate office. In '86, I transferred to Watts Bar and was at Watts Bar Nuclear Plant for a period of about two years. And in '88, I went to Browns Ferry and was a manager in the radiological chemistry control program at Browns Ferry -- in the RADCOM program then, they weren't combined -- for approximately a year, year and a half. Then transferred to Sequoyah Nuclear Plant. That was in 1989. At Sequoyah Nuclear Plant, I was a radiological protection manager initially.
In 1990, I assumed the position of the radiological control manager and in 1993, I assumed the position of the radiological and chemistry control manager, which I continue to serve in to this date. Q Okay. So the position you're in today is the same position you were in in 1996 during the time frame of this complaint?
A Yes. Q And it's also the same position you were in in 6 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 A Yes. Q Okay. And can you tell me -- give me background on your past association with Mr. Fiser, as far as the first time you started working with him? Do you recall that? A Well, the first time I really remember working with Mr. Fiser was during the 1989 time frame when I transferred to Sequoyah full time. I began to interface with him in my role there as the rad protection manager, and his as the chemistry manager. And then as I became the RADCOM manager, our interfaces became more frequent because I was at a different level in the organization then -- our interfaces became more frequent until he left the site. Q Okay. And if I'm not mistaken -- and you can correct me if I'm wrong -- he was transferred from Sequoyah during the 1993 time frame? A That's correct, I believe he left Sequoyah in probably early '93 -- actually '92, he left the site in '92 and went downtown.
Q Okay. So you basically had a lot of working experience with him from 1989 to at least late 1992? A Right. Q Okay. And what about Mr. Harvey, how long have you associated with him as far as work goes? A Mr. Harvey, I don't remember exactly when he came to TVA, but I really had very little association with him ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD. Court Reporters 1025 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 1014 Washington, D.C. 20036 (202) 842-0034 1 r 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 7 before I became responsible for the chemistry program in 1993. Q Okay. And what was your association with him from '93 until '96 then? A From '93 until '96, during part of that time period, and I can't really recall the exact date, but he was assigned to be a corporate chemistry
-- he was in corporate chemistry and he was assigned to be a support person for the Sequoyah Nuclear Plant from the corporate office, and he supported us in a lot of different ways; technical issues, assisting in the development and implementation of generic contracts for the company for vendor services and things like that, procurement of materials and things like that. And so I became pretty familiar with him during that time period.Q Okay. Now if you can just bear with me for a minute, I know we're looking at the 1996 complaint, but I just want to establish your knowledge of the 1993 DOL complaint involving Mr. Fiser. Were you involved with that complaint?
A I'm aware of it and I was interviewed as a result of it. Q Okay. And can you also explain to me, if you would, for the record, whether you had assisted in trying to -- attempting to get him a position there at Sequoyah after ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD. Court Reporters 1025 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 1014 Washington, D.C. 20036 (202) 842-0034 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 he was moved out of Sequoyah into chemistry
-A To the corporate office? Q Uh-huh. A If I could, I'd like to give you a little background
-Q That's fine. A -- on the organizational changes that took place at that time, so you can understand the interface, what we were going through.
Q That's fine. A In 1992, Mr. Fiser left and went downtown and Mr. Jocher, Bill Jocher, from corporate was rotated to the site. Mr. Jocher assumed the role of the chemistry manager at the site. In 1993, management made the decision, site management made the decision that they wanted to combine the radiological and chemistry control organizations.
And Mr. Jocher was to go back downtown and assume his old position as sort of the lead person over the chemistry group downtown in the corporate office. They asked me if I would take responsibility for that group and I agreed to, somewhat reluctantly because I had a lot of stuff to do anyway, I was busy to begin with. The chemistry program at that time wasn't in very good condition, it wasn't a good, solid foundation program, and so I knew it was going to require an ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD. Court Reporters 1025 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 1014 Washington, D.C. 20036 (202) 842-0034 I 9 awful lot of time. So I reluctantly agreed to take the group.1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 One of the things I wanted to do if I took the group was to have it organized the way I wanted it organized, the new organization.
I'm a hands-on type person, I like to have -- like to be involved in the activities that are going on and be involved with people working on decisions that are made, especially important issues. So at first I was not going to have a chemistry superintendent level position in the organization, I wasn't going to have a RADCON superintendent level position in the organization.
The organization that I drew up and got my management's support for was -- had me and five direct reports, essentially my old direct reports from RADCON would continue to report to me and the level below, the chemistry superintendent position in chemistry would begin to report to me. Basically that's the way I wanted to run it and we started out that way. After a period of about, I don't know, six months or so, initiatives from corporate management to standardize the way the sites are structured and standardize the way we do business across the company became very significant and important and we were asked to reconsider
-- I'll put it that way -- the organization that we wanted to implement and add a chemistry manager and a RADCON manager back to the ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD. Court Reporters 1025 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 1014 Washington, D.C. 20036 (202) 842-0034 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Q position?But you were still considering him for that one A Right, because I could make up where he lacked..
Q Okay. Did you ever remember having any discussion with Mr. Fiser wherein you indicated to him during this time frame, after he went into I guess the employee transition ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD. Court Reporters 1025 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 1014 Washington, D.C. 20036 (202) 842-0034 organization.
We did agree to do that and at that time -this was probably -- I can't remember the date now, it was fairly late in '93 or early '94 -- at that time we began recruiting for a chemistry manager. One of the persons that I considered for that was Gary Fiser, because he had been involved in the chemistry program at Sequoyah before. Q Okay. Now if you can go back again during that time frame, what was your professional assessment of Mr. Fiser during your experience with him from '89 to '92? A Well, based on my knowledge from '89 to '92 again, I was an outsider looking in to the chemistry program. I observed the results of what they did, not necessarily the details of how they had accomplished things or whatever, but Gary is a very easy-going person, he's soft-spoken, he's the kind of person I think with appropriate management support could accomplish a great deal, but if it comes down to having to make a position known and really driving the position home, I didn't think he was very strong in that area.
1 2 \s. 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 11 program where he was at the time that you were considering him for that position at Sequoyah -- did you ever indicate to him that you didn't understand why they were doing this to him? They being TVA -- and that you had a position for him at Sequoyah that you wanted -- were interested in getting for him? A Not exactly. Let me explain. Gary was in what I think was called the transition program and I was having a great deal of difficulty staffing the vacancy that I had, and so I approached my manager at that time -Q Can you tell me who he was, please? A Rob Beecken.
Q Okay. A Mr. Rob Beecken. And I believe I told Rob that, you know, I thought Gary could do the job, that I could fill in where he, you know, lacked maybe in some of his aggressiveness and that I thought if we were going to have to staff that position, we needed to consider Gary. Q What was Mr. Beecken's response?
A He told me fine, talk to him, so I did. Q Okay. A I began pursuing interest with Gary for the position.
Q A Okay. And had several discussions with him about it.ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD. Court Reporters 1025 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 1014 Washington, D.C. 20036 (202) 842-0034 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 12 Q Okay. And what ultimately happened?
A Well, from my perspective, what ultimately happened was I asked Gary to come out and talk to me about the job and he did and he told me that he was interested in the job, he thought he would like to work at Sequoyah in the group, but I believe he told me that he didn't think it would be good for the group for him to be a part of the group. Q Okay. Did anyone from upper management ever indicate to you that they did not want him there? A I cannot recall anyone from the plant manager or any other upper manager indicating to me that they did not want him at Sequoyah.
Gary indicated to me that he thought his reputation was so bad that it would be a burden on me with a new organization and on the organization
-- it would be a discredit to the organization basically
-- for him to become part of the organization, to bring him back. And so I told him I would follow up on that. And I asked a few questions of some of the people in corporate just to get a feel for, is this true, does he have a bad reputation and would it be an impact on our organization's ability to have the right kind of relationship with corporate if he were a part of it. And other than that, I had no feedback from anybody about it. Q Did you ever talk to Mr. McArthur regarding ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD. Court Reporters 1025 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 1014 Washington, D.C. 20036 (202) 842-0034 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 13 putting Mr. Fiser at Sequoyah?
A Uh-huh. Yes, I did, Mr. McArthur is the person I contacted regarding Gary's concern.
Q And did Mr. McArthur tell you he had spoken to Mr. Bynum about bringing Gary Fiser to that position?
A No, I don't believe he did. I don't know who he talked to. Q Okay. What did Mr. McArthur tell you about bringing Mr. Fiser out to Sequoyah?
A He told me that -- if I'm not mistaken, Mr. McArthur told me that he had asked some questions and that Gary wasn't highly thought of in corporate, but that from his perspective, he knew me and he knew what I was wanting to do and he would support whatever decision I made. Q Did anyone from upper management tell you it would probably not be a real wise decision to bring him out there? A No, I don't believe I got any other feedback from any upper manager other than Mr. McArthur.
Q Okay. Now going ahead to 1996, during this time frame from '94 to '96, you had been working mostly with Mr. Harvey from the corporate chemistry department
-A That's correct.
Q -- as far as support out in Sequoyah.
Had Mr. Harvey told you that they were going to be reorganizing and that there was possibly going to be some downsizing in the ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD. Court Reporters 1025 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 1014 Washington, D.C. 20036 (202) 842-0034 14 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD. Court Reporters 1025 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 1014 Washington, D.C. 20036 (202) 842-0034 corporate chemistry department?
A I was aware of that, I don't recall who told me. Wilson McArthur may have told me, I mean, you know, the three rad chem managers and the corporate manager, Wilson McArthur, had a very close relationship in terms of, you know, a business relationship.
We meet periodically to discuss issues of common interest to all of us, and so I knew that they were going through some downsizing, but I don't know who told me. Q Okay, as far as the other rad chem managers, can you identify those for the record, please? A The rad chem manager for Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant was John Corey and the rad chem manager for Watts Bar Nuclear Plant at that time was Jack Cox. Q And during this time in 1996, prior to posting Mr. Fiser's position, what positions did you have open or available at Sequoyah in the chemistry department?
A I had one position open at about that time that was vacated by a gentleman by the name of Bruce Fender. We had hired him from Carolina Power & Light and he worked for us approximately a year. He and his wife decided to move back to Carolina and so he left. Q Would you spell Mr. Fender's last name, please? A F-e-n-d-e-r.
Q Okay. And any other positions that were 15 available?
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 I ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD. Court Reporters 1025 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 1014 Washington, D.C. 20036 (202) 842-0034 j ob. Q Okay, and what level was that? A It would have been a PG-8. Q And did you attempt at any time during this time frame, after you heard about the downsizing, to request that Mr. Harvey be transferred out to Sequoyah?
A Yes, I did. When it was brought to my attention that they were going to do the downsizing in corporate and they probably would only have two positions remaining of the three, and since Mr. Harvey was essentially full time support to Sequoyah, I did approach his supervision and ask that, you know, why don't you just transfer him to Sequoyah and that'll solve the problem of your head count in corporate.
I've got a vacancy and I'll just pick him up. Q Who did you speak to about that? A I believe the person I spoke to was -- let me think -- I believe I spoke to Ron Grover about it. Ron was corporate chemistry lead at that time in '96. And I may have spoken to -- I'm pretty sure I spoke to Wilson McArthur about it at some point. Those are the only two I can really A I can't recall any others. I may have had a few other positions, but that's the only one I can think of. Q And what was the description of that position?
A That was a chemistry technical group supervisor's 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 16 remember.
Q Okay. And what was Mr. Grover's response?
A Well, as I can recall, he didn't have a problem with it, he said he would check with his management.
Q Okay. And for the record, the spelling of Mr. Grover's last name? A G-r-o-v-e-r.
Q And when you say he was going to check with his upper management, who would that have been? A That would have been Wilson McArthur I think primarily and probably ultimately Tom McGrath.
Q Okay. And did you ever hear back anything from him regarding that possible transfer?
A Yes, I did. I was informed that they didn't think it would be proper to either volunteer or direct the transfer.
They didn't think that was the right way to fill the position at Sequoyah and they would rather me post the vacancy and select someone for the vacancy rather than them to just transfer one of the people from corporate.
So we didn't do it. Q Did you ever post that position?
A No, I didn't. Q Was that position ever filled? A Well, I guess ultimately it was filled. At the time, I think probably within the next six months or so ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD. Court Reporters 1025 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 1014 Washington, D.C. 20036 (202) 842-0034 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 17 after those conversations, we were undergoing some pretty tight head count constraints at the plant and I lost approval to fill the vacancy for a period of time. Then in later job reorganizations and things like that, I did transfer one of my other staff members into either that position or a position equivalent to it, at a later date. Q Do you remember when? A No, I really don't, it was probably '97, '98. Q During your Department of Labor interview
-- I was reading over both your IG interview and your Department of Labor interview, and in your response concerning the transfer of Mr. Harvey into that position there at Sequoyah, you indicated that Mr. McGrath did not want to just transfer Harvey out of corporate.
Do you recall either one of those interviews and what you may have stated during those interviews?
A I don't -really know -- well, I do recall the interviews in general. I would assume that if the question were asked, you know, what kind of response did you get when you asked to transfer Mr. Harvey to the site, it was that Mr. McGrath didn't think that was the right process for filling a vacancy at the site and he didn't want to do that. Q Okay, so that's basically what you were trying to A Right, that was the point. ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD. Court Reporters 1025 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 1014 Washington, D.C. 20036 (202) 842-0034 18 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Q -- relate to them? A Uh-huh. Q Okay. Earlier in the interview, I asked you about your knowledge of Mr. Fiser's 1993 complaint.
Now after he -- and you acknowledged that you were aware of that. But after he got the corporate position as a part of that settlement of the first 1993 complaint, from what I've been able to ascertain from the separate investigations on the 1996 complaint, occasionally if Mr. Grover was not present for a meeting that was going to be held, he would have either Mr. Fiser or Mr. Harvey attend one of the meetings for him, to represent him. A Uh-huh. Q And what I was looking at here in my investigation is a particular meeting that was held where you were present in the meeting with Mr. Corey. Mr. Fiser was representing Mr. Grover and Mr. Fiser was asked to leave the meeting.
A Uh-huh. Q Can you explain to me what happened during that meeting? A I don't really remember the specifics of that meeting, but I do remember a meeting that Gary attended and I do remember asking him to excuse himself from the meeting.
It wasn't because it was Gary, we would have asked anybody else to excuse themselves from the meeting. Occasionally, ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD. Court Reporters 1025 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 1014 Washington, D.C. 20036 (202) 842-0034 19 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 as the rad chem peer team, we have issues to discuss, such as long range planning in terms of head count, budgetary things, plans that we have for reorganizing the department, that we don't want people outside of the peer team to have knowledge of until, you know, the plans are more solidified.
So there was a topic of discussion that day that we didn't want anybody else to be a part of and we asked him to excuse himself.
Q Do you recall Mr. Grover coming back and asking members that were present during that meeting why they had excluded or asked him to leave? A No, I don't recall that. Q Would it be incorrect information if Mr. Grover stated at one point during this investigation that he was told Mr. Fiser was asked to leave because he had been secretly tape recording people during his 1993 DOL complaint?
A No. I had no knowledge of that and that was certainly
-- I had no knowledge of that at that time or that that was an issue or that that statement was ever made. Q Okay. So you yourself did not make that statement to Mr. Grover about having knowledge of the secret tape recordings and him being excused from that meeting for that reason? A No. ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD. Court Reporters 1025 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 1014 Washington, D.C. 20036 (202) 842-0034 20 1 Q Okay. 2 A As best I can recall, I don't really -- I don't 3 think I ever knew that that was a subject of conversation, 4 of him tape recording anybody.
5 Q Did you have knowledge that he had done that in 6 the past? 7 A No. 8 Q Now going up to the screening panel itself during 9 the 1996 time frame, can you tell me how you were invited to 10 be on that screening panel? 11 A We knew that there were going to be selections 12 made for the corporate position and as a peer team at that 13 time, we were all functioning to support one another in such 14 a way that we had decided if any significant position was 15 going to be filled, either in corporate office or at the 16 sites, that the peer team would serve as part of the 17 selection process. Because the way we looking at it is any 18 key position was really a -- that was a person that was a 19 prime candidate for any of the other positions in leadership 20 at the sites or in the corporate office, and so we wanted to 21 all have input into that, thinking that once you got 22 somebody in one of those positions, you wanted to make sure 23 you developed the right person and that they would be 24 available to go to Sequoyah if we needed someone or Browns 25 Ferry or Watts Bar. So we were asked to be a part of that ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD. Court Reporters 1025 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 1014 Washington, D.C. 20036 (202) 842-0034 1 2 -- 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 "'*-° 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD. Court Reporters 1025 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 1014 Washington, D.C. 20036 (202) 842-0034 21 selection committee.
Q Okay. Do you recall who asked you to be? A Wilson McArthur, I think. Q Do you recall how much time there was between the time you were asked to be on that panel and when the panel was held? A No, not really. I was going to make myself a note of something because I want to maybe go back to it later. Q Do you want me to give you a second? A Yes, if you don't mind. MS. BENSON: We'll go off the record now, the time is 2:12 p.m. [Pause.] MS. BENSON: Back on the record, it's still 2:12 p.m. BY MS. BENSON: Q What we were discussing was the -- you being invited to be on the screening panel. You indicated that Mr. McArthur asked if you would be on this panel. Did you answer my question as far as how much time there was between when you were asked and when the screening interviews were held? A It would have been two to four weeks, I believe.
You know, I don't recall exactly, but it would have been a couple to four weeks.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 22 Q Okay. And who else was on the panel besides you? A The other members of the panel were John Corey from Browns Ferry, Jack Cox from Watts Bar -- initially that's the way it was determined to be -- Wilson McArthur from corporate and then there would be a human resources representative generally on all the panels. Q When you were contacted
-- I'm assuming you were contacted by Mr. McArthur, is that correct? A I think so, yes. Q Okay. Did he ask you what date you would be available or did he give you a specific date that these interviews were going to be held, or how did that come about? A If I remember correctly
-- we have a regularly scheduled peer team meeting, we still do, it's about once a month, it's on every Tuesday, 9:00 in the morning once a month, on I believe it's the second Tuesday of the month, is our general cycle, we'll have this peer team meeting. And typically, the peer team meeting will run three to four or more hours depending on the amount of business we've got to take care of. And if I'm not mistaken, we agreed we would do it after the next peer team meeting, which would have been on the next routine date and that's the date we all selected, because we knew we were all going to be together then anyway. And it's kind of hard to juggle everybody's ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD. Court Reporters 1025 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 1014 Washington, D.C. 20036 (202) 842-0034 23 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 have used for the interviews that afternoon, to start at about -- I remember there was about 30 minutes up front for the selection board to review questions and discuss the process, and then we started with the interviews of the individuals.
I don't remember the order of the individuals being interviewed or anything like that, but you can see we had a full day of interviews.
Q Were you present for all those interviews?
ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD. Court Reporters 1025 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 1014 Washington, D.C. 20036 (202) 842-0034 schedule and get us all together at one time. Q Okay. Was there anyone at this particular meeting that indicated that they would not be able to attend -- you know, be on the panel the following month? A The meeting when it was set up? Q Yes. A No. To the best of my knowledge, I don't recall anybody saying they couldn't be there at that time. Q So the panel was going to -- or the next peer group meeting, you were going to hold the screening interviews the following meeting, after the following peer group meeting.
A Right. Q What I'd like to do is have you review this interview schedule and indicate to me if you're familiar with that. A It looks like the approximate schedule we would 24 1 A Yes. 2 Q And who else was on the screening panel? 3 A Members of the panel at that time were John Corey, 4 myself, Rick Rogers, corporate technical support 5 representative, and Wilson McArthur and an HR representative 6 was there all the time, and I can't remember anybody else, 7 just an HR rep. 8 Q Mr. Rogers is from the corporate office and can 9 you tell me what his background is? 10 A Well, he is a manager in the -- currently he's at 11 Sequoyah in our engineering group. He was -- had served in 12 that capacity for years at Sequoyah and at that time, I 13 believe he was part of the corporate engineering group, 14 technical support organization in downtown Chattanooga.
I 15 had known him for a long time, had a lot of confidence in 16 him in terms of his technical ability and his objectiveness, 17 so I had no problem with him being on the panel. 18 Q Does Mr. Rogers have any chemistry background?
19 A I don't know of any specific chemistry background.
20 Q Okay. And do you know why Mr. Rogers was selected 21 and Mr. Cox was not present on the panel? 22 A Well, to the best of my knowledge, the morning of 23 our meeting, and just prior to the panel, was the first that 24 I became aware that Mr. Cox wasn't going to be there. He 25 told us approximately right at the end of our peer team ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD. Court Reporters 1025 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 1014 Washington, D.C. 20036 (202) 842-0034 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 25 meeting that he had a prior commitment and he wasn't going to get to stay and, you know, I kind of hated that because he's a key player and we really wanted him there. I probably knew before that that Rick Rogers was going to be on the panel also, but I may have found out at about that same time, I don't know. Obviously I didn't have a problem with that. Q Can you explain that to me -- you knew at that time, the morning of these interviews that Mr. Rogers was going to be there. A Yes, I think I did. Q Okay. A You know, I'm sure Wilson probably told me that Rick was going to be there on the panel and Jack informed all of us, me for the first time that I became aware that he wasn't going to be there, was just prior to the breakup of our peer team meeting and the start of the interviews.
Q Okay. So you knew Mr. Rogers was going to be on the panel prior to knowing Mr. Cox was not going to be on the panel? A Well, I think I did. You know, I wasn't shocked when I walked in the room and there was Rick Rogers sitting there, you know, but I don't remember when I found out Rick was going to be on the panel. Q Okay. So all you knew, the only explanation that ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD. Court Reporters 1025 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 1014 Washington, D.C. 20036 (202) 842-0034 26 Mr. Cox gave for not being available was he had a prior conflict?1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 A He had a commitment and he couldn't stay, yeah. Q Do you recall what type of -- whether or not you received a personal package on each of the applicants prior to the interviews?
A I can't recall. Q Okay. Do you recall reviewing any personal packages on the individuals prior to the interviews?
A I really can't recall. I mean we had a -- I know that we had a notebook that had information in it about each of the positions that we were going to be reviewing and we did spend some time reviewing the notebook and the questions that had been put together to ask for the different positions, but I really can't recall if there was any personal information in there on the candidates like, you know, background, experience, degrees and things like that. Q Okay. And do you know who designed the questions for these applicants?
A I think they were -- they were reviewed by us, we reviewed the questions, and I think we may have modified -the peer team -- when I say we, it was the peer team. We may have modified a few of the questions before the start of the interviews.
I think Wilson probably designed the questions.
ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD. Court Reporters 1025 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 1014 Washington, D.C. 20036 (202) 842-0034 27 1 Q Okay. But the peer group itself was presented 2 with the questions and you modified them after you received 3 them, but as far as you know, you didn't design the 4 questions yourselves?
5 A I really can't remember designing the questions.
6 I know we could have had any input we wanted into the 7 questions though. 8 Q Okay. You indicated again that Mr. Rogers was 9 identified as going to be on the panel along with you and 10 Mr. Corey. Do you know whether anyone ever considered Mr. 11 Voeller as a possible candidate to sit on the panel? 12 A Not that I know of. 13 Q Okay. Anyone ever mention his name to you as 14 being someone that would be good to have on the panel? 15 A Not that I can recall. 16 Q Okay. When you were interviewed with the 17 Department of Labor, and I'll just ask if you remember 18 things that you may have said during that interview.
I'm 19 not trying to -- I just want you to remember independently 20 of what you may have said during that interview
-- but 21 having any discussion during that interview about Cox's 22 support of Mr. Fiser's abilities to fulfill that position, 23 and whether this would make him biased or unbiased to be on 24 the panel? 25 A I don't remember a specific question, but I ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD. Court Reporters 1025 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 1014 Washington, D.C. 20036 (202) 842-0034
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 28 probably do -- I think I remember us discussing that as part of the interview.
Q Can you tell me a little bit about that? Your discussions.
A Well, if I'm not mistaken -- I'll tell you what I know about Cox's statement.
Q Okay. A And what I would have told the interviewer, and I think I was asked about it, but I don't remember how the question was phrased.
Mr. Cox, when he told us that he was not going to be able to participate, he said basically that Gary had been at Watts Bar, you know, for a pretty good while and helped them go through the startup chemistry there and had done a very good job, and you know, for his two cents worth, he would say he thought Gary was a good person. That's basically it. Q Do you ever recall making any statements wherein you indicated you felt that Cox was not unbiased?
A Not unbiased -Q And that since he had voiced his support, that perhaps he wouldn't be a good candidate to be on the panel? A Oh, no. I mean, I would have thought that -because Sam Harvey had worked at Sequoyah, you know, and I wasn't going to let the fact that he worked at Sequoyah bias ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD. Court Reporters 1025 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 1014 Washington, D.C. 20036 (202) 842-0034 29 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 the process we were going to go through.
Q Okay. A And I wouldn't have thought Jack would have either. Q Okay. That actually was going to be my next question, was your perception of the different panel members, having worked with the individuals, and if that would be a natural -A Bias, so to speak? Q Yeah, I mean there would be a natural bias built in. Not to say maybe that's why those members were picked for that panel was for their own bias, but because of their specific knowledge of these individuals' capabilities.
A Well, you know, when you really stop and think about it though, all three of these individuals worked in the corporate office and at times they all three supported any given site. So we could have -- I mean, I could have had Chandra working on a project that was just as important to Sequoyah at a given time as Sam Harvey and maybe Fiser also. So I don't think that was an issue. Q Okay. At any time prior to the interview, was there any suggestion made by anyone that you're aware of or made to you that management was interested in having one person in particular selected for the PWR position?
A No. ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD. Court Reporters 1025 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 1014 Washington, D.C. 20036 (202) 842-0034 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Q review didn't right?BY MR. MARQUAND:
I understand you to say that when the selection board members were initially selected, that you know of anyone who was not able to be there, is that A That's right. I was surprised the morning of the selection process that Cox was not going to be there. Q So subsequent to it initially being set up, you learned that apparently Jack Cox may have had a conflict?
A Yeah, that morning, I learned that. Q You were asked about whether -- any past working experience that you might have with any of the individuals
-- that you might take that into the interview room with you. Let me ask you, did you take any preconceived notions about your past interfaces with any of the candidates into the interview room with you as a member of the selection review board? A No, I did not. ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD. Court Reporters 1025 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 1014 Washington, D.C. 20036 (202) 842-0034 30 MS. BENSON: That's basically it. Mr. Marquand, do you have any questions that you'd like to cover. MR. MARQUAND:
I had something I wasn't really sure I understood.
And maybe it'll be clear in black and white, but I'm not sure I understood the question and the answer. So just to make sure there's not a mistake in there.
31 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24. 25 Q As a philosophical matter, did you make this selection based only on what happened in the interview room? A Well, one, I didn't make the selection.
Q Okay, your recommendation.
A My ratings -Q Your ratings, okay. A My ratings of the individuals were based solely on the interview questions and their responses to the questions.
And the questions were designed to assess the individual's understanding of particular issues that were important to different aspects of the program. And we asked -- all of the candidates were given the same questions exactly the same way. They gave us their answers, we evaluated their answer individually and each of us scored their answer to that question on a scale and we did not compare notes. So I would not have known how anyone else was scoring an individual
-- I did not know how anyone else was scoring an individual.
Q When you -- okay, let's go this way. You said you didn't know how the other people were scoring the other individuals, but did you, in scoring between one or two or three candidates, did you keep your ratings in front of you so that when you interviewed Fiser, you knew how you had rated Harvey or when you rated Fiser, you knew how you had rated Chandra? ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD. Court Reporters 1025 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 1014 Washington, D.C. 20036 (202) 842-0034 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 program manager positions, did you take into account the fact that Mr. Fiser had filed either historically in 1992 or '93, whenever it was, a DOL complaint, or that he'd filed a DOL complaint in 1996? A No. Q Did you have any concern about the fairness of the process? A No, I thought it was probably one of the cleanest, most objective processes we had used because, you know, it was really managed I thought very well. Q Well, you knew Fiser had previous DOL complaints.
A Yes. Q Did you have any concern that the process be fair because of his DOL complaint?
A Well, the only concern I had about the process ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD. Court Reporters 1025 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 1014 Washington, D.C. 20036 (202) 842-0034 32 A I don't think so. I think the process we used -the process we went through -- was we rated an individual on one interview and we turned in our rating sheets and we didn't tally points or add up scores or anything else, we just simply turned them in; each member turned in their rating sheets and we brought in the next person. Q Okay. A The process was designed to be as objective as possible.
Q In evaluating the candidates for the chemistry 33 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 being fair -- and it really wasn't that I thought the process might not be fair -- but I didn't want anybody to be able to question the process that we went through, because we wanted it to be objective and we all thought a lot of all of the candidates, you know, they had all supported the sites and we wanted the process to be as clean and objective as possible.
So I did ask that Wilson McArthur not participate as a voting member of the review panel, that morning.
Q Did he have any input into any of the ratings? A No. Q Did you discuss with him how you should rate any of the individual candidates?
A No. We did not discuss -- from the time we started the process, we agreed prior to the selection board convening that Wilson would not have a vote and he would take notes if he desired, but he would not have a vote and he would not turn in scores. And to the best of my knowledge, he had no input. Q You were asked if you had knowledge of Mr. Fiser's '93 complaint and you indicated you had even been interviewed.
Did you understand that you had ever been a target or an alleged discriminating official with respect to his '93 complaint?
A No. ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD. Court Reporters 1025 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 1014 Washington, D.C. 20036 (202) 842-0034 34 1 MR. MARQUAND:
That's all I have. 2 BY MS. BENSON: 3 Q I guess the only clarifying point I would ask you 4 is why is it that you did not want Mr. McArthur 5 participating in the panel? 6 A Well, I was aware that there was an outstanding 7 complaint and the complaint, as I understood it, was that 8 the position should not have been advertised to start with. 9 And you know, I thought that it would be better for the 10 process if Wilson did not participate, and we discussed it 11 briefly and Wilson agreed. 12 Q Okay. Had you been informed that Mr. McArthur was 13 a target of this complaint, or just his knowledge of this 14 complaint?
15 A Well, I also had knowledge of it. I didn't think 16 that he was a target, I had not been informed he was a 17 target, but I knew he was a responsible supervisor for the 18 individuals, the individual involved, and I thought, you 19 know, if there is an issue, then it'd be better if Wilson 20 just didn't participate.
21 Q Okay. Were the other board members aware of this 22 outstanding complaint?
23 A I assume so. You know, I don't think it was -- I 24 had known about it for a few weeks at least. I don't 25 remember who told me, maybe Wilson told me, maybe Gary told ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD. Court Reporters 1025 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 1014 Washington, D.C. 20036 (202) 842-0034 1 (~2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 35 me himself, I don't know. But I don't think it was a secret that there was a complaint.
MS. BENSON: Okay. I don't have any further questions.
Do you have anything that you would like to add to the record yourself?
THE INTERVIEWEE:
Yes, I wanted to go back and talk just about a couple of points that we discussed, just to make sure. You asked a question about my knowledge of Fiser recording things. MS. BENSON: Okay. THE INTERVIEWEE:
As best I can recall, at the time we had the selection board, I was not aware of any issues or concerns about Gary having recorded or any allegations that he was recording people in response to his complaint
-- or for any other reason. BY MS. BENSON: Q Well, a question I would have before you get off that point is were you never told by Mr. McArthur that Gary had been doing that in his 1993 complaint?
A I don't recall that, being told that by Wilson or anybody else. Q Okay. When you answer that way, are you telling me it's possible and you don't remember or that it never happened, that he never told you this? A Well, I don't think he ever told me that, I don't ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD. Court Reporters 1025 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 1014 Washington, D.C. 20036 (202) 842-0034 36 1 think I knew it until very recently, was even aware of it 2 until very recently.
3 Q But you're not sure whether he ever told you that 4 or not? I mean, you cannot positively say. 5 A I cannot positively say he didn't tell me, but I 6 certainly can't remember him telling me, and I can't 7 remember knowing that piece of information or being 8 concerned about that bit of information or anything else 9 during this time period. 10 MS. BENSON: Okay. 11 THE INTERVIEWEE:
The other issue -- the other 12 question you asked me was related to designing the interview 13 questions.
You know, this has been a long time ago, I've 14 slept several times since then. We had input into those 15 questions as a peer team. The input may have been weeks 16 before the process or it may have all been that morning, and 17 I can't recall which. But I wanted to make -- you know, I 18 think we did have input into the questions.
I don't think 19 Wilson would have sat in isolation and developed a set of 20 questions he was going to ask the guys, I think he would 21 have given them to us at some point and said would you guys 22 review these and tell me if you want to add anything, and we 23 would have done that. But I can't recall a specific 24 occasion where, you know, we sat down and wrote out the 25 questions or anything else, but -ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD. Court Reporters 1025 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 1014 Washington, D.C. 20036 (202) 842-0034 37 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES, LTD. Court Reporters 1025 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 1014 Washington, D.C. 20036 (202) 842-0034 BY MS. BENSON: Q So would it be fair to say that you don't recall how the questions were designed?
A Right, I don't recall. Q That's probably the best way to answer that. A Okay, I don't clearly recall how they were designed, but I feel like I did have input to them. And so I wanted to make sure you were aware of that. MS. BENSON: That's fine, I appreciate it. Just for the record, if you can indicate whether the information you provided today was provided voluntarily and without any threats or coercion from the NRC. THE INTERVIEWEE:
Yes, information was provided voluntarily and without any threats of coercion of any type from the NRC. MS. BENSON: I appreciate it and thank you for your time. THE INTERVIEWEE:
You're welcome.
[Whereupon, at 2:36 p.m., the interview was concluded.]
CERTI FI CATE This is to certify that the attached proceedings before the U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in the matter of: Name of Proceeding:
Interview of Charles E. Kent, Jr. Docket Number: 2-1998-013 Place of Proceeding:
Chattanooga, TN Date: October 22, 1998 were held as herein appears, and that this is the original transcript thereof for the file of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission taken by me and, thereafter reduced to typewriting by me or under the direction of the court reporting company, and that the transcript is a true and accurate record of the foregoing proceedings.
WILLIAM L. WARREN Official Reporter ANN RILEY & ASSOCIATES Ann Riley & Associates (202)842-0034